When we asked for your kdrama addiction stories, we were expecting some funny, outrageous tales of wonder and woe. But even so, we were amazed at the extreme lengths you’ve all gone through in the name of your passion.

We’re also tickled by the hilarious situations that this passion has put you in — whether that’s watching dramas without audio to keep from waking spouses (ai*, comment 230), literally making yourself sick because Coffee Prince made you determined to start drinking coffee (Angela, 172), quitting a second job to give yourself the time to watch dramas (luraaa, 25), or going to extremes to hide your addiction from parents, boyfriends, or disapproving friends (practically everyone).

Below are the highlights, the honorable mentions, and of course…the winner. It’s a compilation of the funniest and craziest things done in the name of kdramas, and we’re proud to give voice to the self-proclaimed, flag-waving addicts among us.

obsessed (378) gives us the eye-opening, official diagnostic criteria for substance dependence, as defined by the DSM-IV:

A maladaptive pattern of substance use, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by three (or more) of the following, occurring at any time in the same 12-month period:

tolerance, as defined by either of the following:
– a need for markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve intoxication or desired effect
– markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of substance

withdrawal, as manifested by either of the following:
– the characteristic withdrawal syndrome for the substance
– the same (or a closely related) substance is taken to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms

the substance is often taken in larger amounts or over a longer period than was intended

there is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use

a great deal of time is spent in activities to obtain the substance, use the substance, or recover from its effects

important social, occupational or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of substance use

the substance use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problem that is likely to have been caused or exacerbated by the substance (e.g., continued drinking despite recognition that an ulcer was made worse by alcohol consumption)

Who, us, addicted? No way! Not a chance. Hardly. Maybe just a little…

You’re Beautiful was a popular source of drama-induced madness

SACRIFICES

We’ve all made sacrifices, whether it’s sleep or study time or chances to socialize with friends. jt (113) had a somewhat bigger sacrifice to the drama gods:

it was october of 2008, it was my first and last year in med school (guys, don’t start to watch kdramas when you are in med school because you might fail!).

i usually went home for lunch after class and after reaching home at noon I turn on the tv and boom! a korean drama. since we don’t have cable that time and we’re using antenna I just let that single channel play while eating. you might call it destiny.

this single channel televised korean dramas once a day every noon. at that time I was able to catch Princess Lulu. I got curious on how it ends so after class I went home immediately to finish it. I even skipped free lunch and ice cream from my classmates. after princess lulu ended, they televised MY GIRL and I got hooked. man, it’s like a drug. I can’t wait for the ending so instead of studying, I checked it on youtube to mysoju and then it goes on and on.

although my grades were failing even at the start of the year, during the final week of class I was absent. since it was raining for a week also, I made an excuse that I had fever and cough.

after the school year, of course I failed, I watched different kdramas all summer long… and never stopped then.

GIVE ME ACCESS, OR ELSE!

These days access is as easy as a torrent, a viikii account, or some minimal downloading knowledge. It wasn’t always that way, as some of us know, having endured some very roundabout, inefficient, and inconvenient methods just to get our fix. Example: xiaoSxin (16) resorted to watching camcorder recordings of a TV screen, taken by an enabling helpful friend.

On the other hand, CG (55) had to contend with super-slow internet just when a You’re Beautiful addiction was peaking:

I decided to run to the library every day during Thanksgiving break to catch up with episodes. It was so cold and I don’t know how to ride a bike. The library is about 10 minutes away by car, and since I’m so athletically limited, it took me at least 30 minutes to get there. But my parents found out about my obsession and they banned me from the library and my computer. By the time I was off the hook, school had resumed again.

The public library’s right next to my school and I’d go there everyday during lunch to watch episodes. There was this one time when I was watching contently when the librarian loomed over me:

Librarian: Get off RIGHT NOW. Didn’t you read the sign? It’s reserved for the public ONLY today (and not students). [It’s the stare that gets me every time. And she was staring at me like her eyes would pop out]

I tried to walk dignified into the library the next day, but gave up because the librarian was there again. I went as far as to track her schedule down. Then I’d walk home really late and I’d lie to my parents about having projects. I guess they didn’t realize the pattern to the days I did the project.

chacha9891 (106) got hooked on Lovers in Paris on a vacation to the Philippines, but it wasn’t until after she left that her brother discovered a bootleg DVD stall (in the Philippines). One year later on another vacation, she raided the bootleg dvd shop and “probably bought around 40 dvd sets.” Then:

Then one day my dad hears a story from one his friends about some Filipino guy who got caught at JFK airport in New York for trying to smuggle in a bunch of bootleg dvds. Suddenly my dad was like “NO! WE’RE NOT GOING TO JAIL FOR YOUR STUPID DVDS!”….and I was like ” NOOOO!!! WE CAN”T LEAVE MY BABIES!” My brother and I immediately started brainstorming for loopholes. Then we came up with this genius solution (at least we thought it was) to burn the bootleg dvds on to blank dvds (you guys get that? basically double ultimate bootleg LOL), and then not label them. The normal bootleg dvds had pictures/titles on them, and could easily be traced as fakes. Our brilliant solution was to have them pass off as just normal blank disks. So we basically spent a whole week straight burning about 200 bootleg dvds. Made it through the Philippine airport customs without a problem. Then we get to San Francisco, and customs stops my dad at the luggage xray machine. The world stopped for a moment there, and I was like “CRAP! WE’RE GOING TO JAIL BECAUSE OF MY DVDS!”

….turns out they stopped us because of the pork sausages my dad was trying to get by them. LOL

My Name Is Kim Sam-soon

PRIORITIES

Sometimes our priorities may get just a leetle bit skewed. Imagine that you encounter an apartment fire and have seconds to grab your precious belongings, as CoconutJuice (207) had to do. (She grabbed her (1) money and (2) Full House DVD.)

On the other hand, beng (158) was working on a major Powerpoint presentation that delayed her Coffee Prince watching. On the eve of the big presentation:

I told to myself, i’ll watch 1 episode before I go home. Before I knew it, i’ve watched several episodes and the sun has risen. Oh no, so what did I ended up doing? I presented with the same clothes that i’m wearing the day before. Gosh, everytime I remember it, I just laugh at myself, coz everyone thought i’m quite dedicated to my work.

What happens when a secretary at the Prime Minister’s office really, really wants needs to spend the day watching kdramas? ladyteruki (112) says:

I went to work as usual. I got there as fast as I could, opened my boss’ time table and started to call as many people as possible to set up meetings. At first, I had a few victims in mind, because I knew my boss would see them regularly anyway, but when it appeared many of them weren’t available, I called people randomly and made up meetings.

I even gave him good reasons to go to the one that really made no sense because I was desperate for one hour and a half. Now my boss, I have to say, is adorable, and sadly for him, he trusts me. Well, never trust a girl who has a DVD full of dramas under her keyboard, my friend.

He went away, and it took me maybe 15 more minutes to book the rest of the afternoon. Sent him an email about the new meetings so that he wouldn’t have to come back to his office. I even told security at the entrance of the building so that they would stop him, in case he didn’t read it.

And then, of course, came drama time. Closed the door, turned off the light, and all day, watched the episodes I had brought. If that day, everything went wrong in the country because my boss spent the day in made up meetings, blame it on me.

I’ll be honest with you, this might happen again this summer.

What happens when a pregnancy coincides with a drama addiction? icechocolate (185) tells us:

I calculated that BL would end before my second’s due. So, I feel a little bit worry but also happy, when they announced to expand the series by 2 episodes. Nooo.. that’s my due! What to do? I wanted to see Hwan and Eun So happy at the time. I’m kind of person who flip the end of the book to know who end up with who, now you want me to delay for some days? Please, don’t! Just please..

Thank you, son, you were listening to me.

And then there’s labchick (203):

A couple years ago, I was with my sister during the last two weeks of her pregnancy. This one night, we came across MNKSS and it was love at first sight. We quickly got addicted. We watched 10 episodes the first night before going to sleep at 5 am.

When we woke up, we started where we left off… and my sister went into labor. We rushed to the hospital, carrying my laptop, forgetting to bring her night bag (which by the way took us 2 weeks to pack). I drove like crazy to the hospital through Boston traffic while she was either screaming in pain or at Jin Hun for being a douche. We finally get to the hospital… and when the nurses came to get my sister.. she starts shrieking… that we have to watch the show. So my sister, the laptop, and I are rushed into the delivery room. The doctor and the nurses thought we were nuts. but we kept watching.

After 6 hours of labor, 5 hours of shrieking, and 10 mins of awwing, we finally got to welcome my beautiful little niece to this world. Her middle name is SAMSOON!!! and we’re not even remotely korean!!!

Boys Before Flowers also accounted for its share of insanity

EXCUSES!

oh! tht! chick! (19) not only invented an excuse, she invented a person — a relative created solely to be killed off, allowing for her to take four days off work to “attend the funeral,” which in her case meant a Boys Before Flowers marathon.

leesja/J2 (240) decided to drive home during lunch every day for love of So Ji-sub and I’m Sorry I Love You (MISA):

There weren’t enough hours in the day to watch this. There I was a grown woman with a family, and a very demanding job, trying to sneak in every free moment to watch this.

So, in my lunch breaks I would drive home to watch 30 minutes. Just another minute, I would tell myself … And yes, the inevitable happened… One day I cut it sooooo short, that I had to sneak in to work via the back door. It was after one of the heart-wrenching episode. There I was, trying to sneak back into work without anyone noticing my lateness or even more importantly, my tear-stained face & very red, puffy eyes.

The boss took one look at my face and inquired if everything was OK at home? Did something happen to upset me? He told me to take the afternoon off – to go home and just let it all go, to come to terms with whatever has upset me soooo much.

For just a second, no a milli-second I hesitated. [But] The elation I felt as I drove home so out-weighed any guilt I was feeling.

Pink (339) had to contend with the Boys Before Flowers finale coinciding with a big friend-of-family event (a surprise party for friend’s parents’ anniversary). The night began after “a grueling 12 hour shift and long drive,” followed by a cupcake-frosting session, only to find that the laptop charger had been forgotten. The next day was the finale. So… make a three-hour drive back home, or go without the finale?

Drastic times call for drastic measures. I had to drive back home, get my charger, drive back before my friend found out.

My bff is not a drama watcher and has actively tried to end my addiction through countless interventions. I needed an alibi [so] I told my friend that I was headed to the store. I said I need tampons that he doesn’t have. Mention of the T word shut him up for good.

I got in my car, dirty uniform still on. I raced on the highway like a mad woman, reached my home in an hour, grabbed the charger, and was on my way back.

All of a sudden, there were sirens and a flashy car coming racing after me. I stopped in the middle of the highway. The sirens and flashes continued as a man approached my vehicle.

“Madam, do you know how fast you were going?”
“Oh hello Mr. osifer, I think I was going a bit fast.” That was an understatement considering I was driving 140km/h in an 80km/h zone. He looked at me and asked where I was headed.

“To work. I am late for a shift.” I flashed him a smile as he looked at my scrubs.
“Well, we would all like to get there in one piece. Please slow down and next time, don’t stop in the middle of the highway. Pull over to the right side”.

Phew! No ticket.

But hey, I watched BOF, series finale, LIVE!

Only to be thoroughly disappointed in a non-ending ending. I mean, what kinda stupid ending was that?

HIDING THE ADDICTION

Ri (4) got hooked on Success Story of a Bright Girl, only she wasn’t allowed to watch much TV. So how did she catch the last few episodes?

Sooo what I did was call up one of my good friends and ask her to watch it while telling me exactly what happens, all while I pretended to be asking her about school work. She was really sweet, she turned her TV up louder so I could listen (it was dubbed in Mandarin so I could understand) and then she would semi-explain facial expressions and what they were doing. Ever try to LISTEN to a kdrama? Yea, it’s not easy! Haha but in retrospect, it was kinda fun!

Flower Pot (43) sez:

My boyfriend and I just started living together when I discovered MY NAME IS KIM SAM SOON around 2005… since I tend to become pretty obsessive, I watched all 16 episodes in one sitting that I filed for sick leave the day after…

Now, my boyfriend was soooo angry that I was not sleeping at all watching the show that I had to pretend I was sleeping when he wakes up … I would turn the TV off in a panic when he alights from sleep and pretend that I am already in bed and then stealthily turn it on again and watch in silence while just reading the subtitles when he’s back to sleep…

after My Name is Kim Sam Soon our PC crashed and my boyfriend was aghast to find that there were more photos of Hyun Bin stored on it than that of us, family and friends… hahaha!

The lengths we’ll go to conceal our addictions! Monika (184) skipped classes to watch Cinderella’s Sister. But she had to conceal that from her sister, whom she had to then meet for dinner:

I had to run to the station, which is around 1 hour away from home, I had to take a train, then change to tube, but not just one line, two tube lines. So yes it takes me 45 minute to get to the station where I was supposed to meet her.

The one thing is that there are only 2 exits from the tube station, and they are connected. My sister used to wait at one of the 2 exits, and once I walk out of the tube station she’ll see me right away. That’s why I came up with a plan. 30 minutes before the time I was supposed to meet her, I went on the train. When I arrived, I called her and said my classes finished but my teacher wanted to see me, thus i’d have to stay late. So I told her to wait at the shop across the tube station, which she said she would.

But then I thought what if she forgot and waited for me at the station. So I had to take the long way, by bus. So on the bus, I was trying to be patient, but it was 5pm and the traffic was so heavy. In the end, I only took the bus to the next tube station, then I went to the underground instead. On the way I thought of how to tell her if I happened to see her right at the stations, then I thought I should say I was walking with a friend and forgot that she was waiting.

Luckily she waited for me in the shop, so well in the end, I used up all of my brain cells to think of excuses for my watching the drama and skip school :”>

lessaofpern (215) has made a few excuses in her day:

It got so bad that my husband had to disable our internet connection for several hours a day, so I would watch less. I had to promise to watch only 2 hours a day to get it turned back on. You know who had her fingers crossed behind her back when she agreed to that one. I’ve lied more times about watching K dramas then I have in my whole life put together (and I’m a Sunday school teacher to boot) SAD SAD SAD. My computer has been infected with every virus known to mankind, from watching them. I keep telling my husband that it’s the kids that have crashed our computer, when it is actually me. (BAD MOM).

MOTHERS!

Kdramas can lead to some role reversal when the bug gets to our parents, as Yuki (195) found out:

One day, I was watching the first episode of You’re Beautiful. (Note: My mother is an Chinese woman around the age of 60.)

Mom: Is it airing today?!??!
Me: Yes, but mom, I’m late for school…
Mom: I know, I know, I just wanted to make sure…Have a great day!

Mom: IS IT OUT YET? IS IT OUT YET??
Me: It’s out but it’s not subbed.
Mom: What do you mean it’s NOT SUBBED?!?
Me: Mom, dramas in Korea don’t air with Chinese subs…
Mom: …right. Well remember to check every 5 minutes for it, okay?
Me: Mom, I have homework…
Mom: Well, I’m sure you can do your homework while you check, right?

Me: Okay, I have the episode, we can watch it later.
Mom: LATER? Why later?
Me: ‘Cause…I still need to finish my homework
Mom: Then go do your homework. I need this NOW.
Me: …you’re not waiting for me…?
Mom: No.

FREGEEK‘s (167) mother could probably relate:

My mom watched a couple of episodes with me and she said that she liked Hwang Tae Kyung. I was mad at my mom for liking Tae Kyung because I’m the only one who can like him. Because of my rebelion, my mom was pissed and she refused to cook me dinner for almost a week, causing me to eat instant noodle for dinner for a week.

Another frequent offender: Coffee Prince

TRAVEL

Traveling was a frequent theme, as many of you just had to go directly to source, aka Korea. Some of you, like kitkat (108), have trips to Seoul planned. Others like diadda (146) have already been there, and related your stories of navigating neighborhoods with numerous wrong turns and minimal Korean language usage. rorikurama (34) describes the travails of taking not just a wrong turn but the wrong ferry in search of the Full House mansion.

purty.sunshine (166) has a story closer to home — she braved a six-hour drive and a severe snowstorm to see Se7en in Seattle.

And then there’s Chameleon88 (129):

HOW MY OBSESSION WITH K-DRAMAS TURNED ME INTO A SACRILEGIOUS STALKER AND ULTIMATELY LED TO AN UNSUCCESSFUL HIGH SPEED CHASE ON A SOCAL FREEWAY.

I had been watching this k-drama/reality show for a while and I was obsessed with this couple on the show. The female half of this couple is known for doing a lot of charity events and I happened to read her Soompi page which stated that her charity organization would be doing a benefit concert or charity presentation in LA. All I had to go on was an address. So, Naturally, I Google it. I set off to see if I could meet the actress/singer in person. I thought it was some kind of meeting hall or public arena. Imagine my surprise when I pull up and lo and behold, it’s a church.

I entered the church and sat down quietly trying to look like I belonged. (All the while praying that my own religion’s God would forgive my blasphemy and not to strike me down with lightning).

As I was waiting, I overheard some girls talking that indeed the actress was on premises… in the other building. And before I could even get up and leave, the preacher/priest began his sermon with a bellowing, “Resist evil and temptation, you lambs of God!” What followed was nothing short of an honest to goodness hellfire and brimstone sermon straight from the early 1700s. The whole time, I was thinking, “What have you gotten yourself into?!”

Utterly defeated, I sat in my car in the parking lot for a while contemplating the sadness of my life and the past few hours. Suddenly, I hear screaming and people shouting the actress/singer’s name. I watched the woman I had been so fervently stalking come out of the lecture building and climb onto the tour bus. The teenagers crowded the bus and started chanting her name. A few minutes after taking pictures with the crowd, she got back onto the bus.

Without thinking, my fingers went to start my car and before I realized it, I was peeling out of the church driveway and following the tour bus down the street and eventually onto the freeway. I was arguing with myself out loud about why I was doing this. So, I did the only thing I could do, continue to follow them but keeping a few cars behind so as not to give away that I was following them.

A few miles later, I had to give up because I could not see the bus anymore. Alas, I never got to meet her or even see her up close.

Honestly, at the beginning of this adventure, I never really had a plan. I only wanted to see her and possibly speak with her a bit. But not in my wildest imagination did I even think that I would have become a stalker, be able to sit through a service that was not my own religion and under no circumstances, be able to give chase to a tour bus on the streets of LA!

byul1232 (83) started out writing Shinhwa fanfic, which led to full-length online novels: “I somehow ended up getting a book publishing deal with some random company in Thailand. I still get royalties to this day.” Her friends thought she’d grow out of it, but instead she continued to work kdramas into as many school projects as she could. In her senior year of university:

I figured since I watch Korean dramas all the time, I might as well get some credits for it. My independent study course was called “Korean dramas, and their effect on Society.” I wrote a 10-page essay and a 60+ page novel, both typed in Korean, highlighting what I found out during my “research” process, aka watching 80+ hours of Korean dramas. I got an A in the course.

Now I am currently writing a new chapter of my life: moving to Korea and enrolling in a drama academy so I can once and for all, fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a Korean drama writer.

REAL-LIFE ROMANCE

We think cingdoc (17) officially has the most understanding husband:

Well, my favorite was (actually still is) Coffee Prince. I adore Choi Han Kyul/Go Eun Chan. My Hubs knows how much I especially LOVE Gong Yoo. So he asked me to go ’somewhere” with him…. the local Mini Cooper dealership. My adorable, sweet, but crazy, other half actually was going to buy me the EXACT Choi Han Kyul’s car…. Now, I might be a certifiable nutty Yoo gal, but I’m very practical. Besides working part time, the bulk of my time involves Mommy taxi-ing… the mini is NOT going to cut it. We only test drove the vehicle, and did NOT make the purchase. BUT for the rest of my life, I will always have fond memories of the brief moment of driving my Yoo’s car, from my favorite kdrama, from my loving REAL life husband….

pabo ceo reom (403) has a sadder story:

My ex-boyfriend took me on a vacation to Hawaii for 5 days. He’s an avid surfer so he had set up a date on the beach one day. I faked a stomach flu because I just couldn’t wait to finish two episodes of Coffee Prince in our hotel room. When he came back, he said I had puffy eyes (apparently I cried at some point in the drama). He thought I was upset about not being able to go to the beach and took me to a bar to lighten the mood. Basically I got piss drunked (bad bad bad idea..) and told him in my drunken stupor that I was crying because of some guy named Choi Han-kyul. My boyfriend (who’s Korean) started getting mad asking me who the hell is this Han-kyul guy and if I was cheating on him. I then apparently blacked out from the alcohol.

The next day I was lying in our hotel bed with the fattest hangover ever. When I fully woke up, I found out via a message at the receptionist desk that my boyfriend had flown back home and left me in Hawaii by myself. My first reaction was “that fcuking jerk!” because I couldn’t remember what had happened the night before.

Annnnnnnyhow, long story short, I flew back, made a huge scene, kicked him in the ass, FELT LIKE AN ASS MYSELF when I found out the entire story, and we were both speechless about how the hell this all went down. We eventually broke up because of a multitude of reasons, which I can assure you were much more significant and normal than the situation I talked about. However, to this day, my close girlfriends like to taunt that I singlehandedly destroyed my love life because of my addiction to kdrama.

They ask me all the time why aren’t there rehab centers for kdrama addicts? I just ask myself: where the hell are all the cute, rich, and loving male kdrama addicts out there? Holler!

But bleu‘s (115) is quite possibly the cutest one:

I once stayed up a whole week in my apartment watching MNIKSS, Spring days, and Stained Glass Window. For a week, the curtain of my apartment was drawn, newspapers left uncollected in front of my door, mails unopened. I survived the whole week only by eating ramen and kimchi, drinking gazillion cups of coffee. I turned myself into a cave woman.

A week later I went out to collect my mountain of newspapers, a really cute guy from next door apartment jumped to his feet when he saw me.

Cute neighbor: Jesus Christ, You are alive!!
Me: *smile sheepishly* “what do you mean? Of course I am alive!”
Cute neighbor: Well, I heard rumor the girl who lived in that apartment killed herself like a week ago over some Asian drama actor or something. You aren’t a ghost are you coz now, you kind of looked like one.
Me: *pout and slam the door*
(Now, not so cute) Neighbor: *laugh loudly* I was joking, I was joking. Come out for a moment I have something for you.
Me: Go away!

A moment later he was speaking in front of my door: “I heard Korean drama blaring on your TV all day and night for a week and thought you may like this one.” (He slips a gift certificate from a local Asian Drama DVD store)

One “a suddenly really” cute guy and a gift certificate from my favorite store?..…. I kneeled and thanked God for my addiction…

Believe it or not, a year after we got married.

And last but not least, the winner…!

Success Story of a Bright Girl

Alert (30), We salute you for your perseverance:

It was 2003. I just got my first job, went to the office by public transports, and just moved in a halfly shrewded place that I rent just because it’s the cheapest one I found, with two people I hardly knew. I was desperate at that time, so that’s the only choice I had. The house was very gloomy, with half the lighting’s gone, and a kitchen that’s barely touchable. But it was half-furnished, with some furnitures, and a tv. And as for rats? They’re everywhere. they were hiding when I first moved in, but decided to show themselves right after (they so love the kitchen!). You have no idea how scary rats can be. I DESPISE RATS. I could cry for hours just seeing rats. I almost thought of going to therapist because of rats. I was traumatized by sights of rats to the extend that when I slept I had to stuff my ears with headphones and loud musics so I could never hear rats screeching their way outside. And I slept with a broom right on my side, just in case.

So why didn’t I move out? Well here’s the story.

A week after I moved in, Success Story of a Bright Girl was just showing on a local tv and I happened to watch the first episode, then the next, then without knowing, I was totally sucked into the drama (I hadn’t learned downloading or watching online yet). I had to come back from the office early on days Bright Girl were on, since I used public transport, and a delay would cost me another hour of waiting for the bus, and would make me miss my Jang Hyuk *cough* Bright Girl. I remembered giving excuses after excuses to my boss on why I need to go back early (the show was at late evening). Oh, I wasn’t feeling well. At first it was headaches. Then gastrics. Then food poisoning. And after I’ve used up all the not feeling well excuses, I simply had emergency family matters LOL (we all’ ve been there, don’t we?!).

The living room of where I’d watch the tv then was situated in between the kitchen and my bedroom. So it’s like a common thing to see a rat or two crossing in front of the tv. I couldn’t moved out yet, because even if I found a better place, the new rental, and the cost for living (transports, food etc) wouldn’t allow me to BUY A TV, for at least another few months. And that ratty place, regardless how bad it was, I can watch Jang Hyuk, and it all that matters that time. So preparing myself to watch Bright Girl every time it aired was like going into a battlefield. I equipped myself with a broom in hand and would drag the tallest chair I could find, and seated myself in front of the tv – with my two feet off the ground. The whole I hour would solely be dedicated to the show, but I would stomped the broom once in a while, to scare off the rats.

I moved out a week after Bright Girl ended. At least now I can say I’ve went to rat’s hole and back to watch Kdrama. That’s why Jang Hyuk hold a special place in my heart. I’ve suffered for him. I went to battle for him. I sacrificed my life for his drama. I’ve cried hours just so I could watch him. Even when he’s speaking in a dubbed Chinese, which I don’t even understand. Yep, am crazy, I know.

Only as crazy as the rest of us, but your story definitely takes the cake.

Congrats to Alert for the winning entry, and thanks to everyone for sharing your stories. It makes us feel a little bit like crack dealers, but they say the first step to recovery is acknowledging that you have a problem…

i can totally relate with the mom stories.. i got my mom hooked on the kdramas one week that she started her night shifts (she works as a cctv operator) and we run out of dvds –> and i put a copy of goong on her lap top. then came, you’re beautiful, coffee prince, boys over flowers, full house, my name is kim sam soon, etc… my mom has become so addicted, she has finished all of the stuff i’ve downloaded (i haven’t had the time to watch)and keeps harassing me for subtitles for the raws of current airing dramas. she even learned to download (at age 60) of the free wifi network that the hotel next to her workplace in sydney.

she credits them with her weight loss – she went from a size 16 (australian size) to size 12 without even trying because she forgets to eat and just spends her time watching them even after she has finished at work (in which a large amt was spent watching them in her laptop.

sometimes i feel proud but i feel a smidgen of dismay over the monster i created ;-P

At least ow I know I’m not the oldest fan addicted to kdrama. . My daughter shared the same feelings you have. . I guess. and I’m thankful tha she doesn’t disowned me despite the requests (more of a demad I think . . that I have been making for these past few years.
thak you kdrama

Oh, I should have written one!
I became so obsessed with kdramas that I wanted to experience some of what I watched onscreen. I moved to Korea for two years and taught ESL- great experience! The first time I saw a norae-bang (in real life!!) was such an exciting moment!

Oh my God! I could not tell my story because I taught it was to much! But out there, more people are obsessed as me!

I love Kdramas, once I seat in front of my laptop that’s the end of my day! Takes me ages to get up!

Anyway, let’s enjoy, but we beg our stars to be strong because they make our lives enjoyable! They should know we appreciate their hard work and enjoy as we enjoy! Please, fighting! Life is never easy!

LOL IRL
for every story i read! a few about skipping school or relating kdramas to your academic papers/research/projects…yep that was me too!
getting insomnia from watching kdramas all night…
i’m glad i’m not alone about my kdrama addiction.
congrats to Alert~

Oh my God!!! I have to admit I can relate to most of the stories shared here. Either I tried to do that or I wanted to do that or I was JUST planning to do most of the things that ended up on the runner up lists..

Thanks JB and GF for this “fun” and “unique” exercise.. It really bonded us all together in a very special way.

I am completely obsessed with drama watching right now [I’m currently watching 3 shows simultaneously]. It started with my constant desire to learn new languages. Even tho I was already learning Portuguese, Vietnamese, and bits of Russian I decided to learn Korean & Japanese too.

A buddy of mine at work who’s Korean heard about this and told me to check out a site called MYSOJU that had free clips of Japanese & Korean dramas. I had no idea where to start so I just kind picked some randomly until I found Taiyo to Umi no Kyoshitsu. Thats the first series i watched to the end. I loved it despite the language barrier. I followed one actress from that [Yoshitaka Yuriko] and checked her other projects [Tonsure, Love Shuffle] but it was hard to find all the episodes.

About this time I heard about a K-drama had just come out so I started so I decided to compare it to the Japanese shows which I liked so far. Ended up devouring what turned out to be the Korean take on Hana Yori Dango. That was like March 2009. Since then I’ve probably completed about 30-40 korean shows. MANY unintentional-all-nighters and awkward roommate moments.

After much sifting over the past year I mostly stream video from DRAMAFEVER.com… if you subscribe [which I did for this year] all video is commercial free in HD.

can byul1232 write us a kdrama based on BLEU’s story? or any of these stories? hah. that would be kind of amazing. and the ultimate paying of homage to our crack dealers (read: this website + everywhere else we obsess over dramas) [;

and @34 bippa / poya, oh my gosh dramas have been the cause of many an awkward roommate moment for me, too. soo many times roommate would walk in and ask “oh my gosh are you ok? why are you crying?” or wonder why i’m laughing so hard or so angry at my computer… she’s even begun telling her friends that i’m (secretly) asian when they meet me.

I knew the rats story was going to win! Congrats.
I’m going through my own obsession moment right now, I have to be up in 6 hours and my internet connection is being slow (a clear sign to shut it off and sleep right?) , but unfortunately I know just enough about computers to fix the issue, and I’m going to restart my computer and continue watching Loving you a thousand times. sigh.

wow!!! my first kdrma was successful story of a bright girl too!!!!!!!!! then i proceeded to watch All In then Winter Sonata…. it is so nice to see so many people with the kdrama obsession. this is where i BELONGGG. hehehehe.

Thank you so much JB & Girlfriday!!! You have no idea how shock I am! I’ve been totally busy packing for my trip to Europe today (later tonight ), but I took some time to check this blog (as usual). I’ve just started reading this entry (about 4th para and laughing off the stories) when I got the notice from my email, from YOU. Oh my GOD! And I skipped to the end just to see whether I’m dreaming!

Thank you everyone! I’ve totally enjoyed reading ALL the entries too (a page a day so I don’t miss anything haha).. at least I know I’m not the only addict around. 😛

OMIGOD! Thanks for doing this JB. At least now I know I’m not as crazy as I thought I was. And more importantly my husband should read this and realise that his wife is still comparatively NORMAL compared to all those with the simply hilarious stories above. LOL!

hahaha… i had fun reading… I remember my coffee prince watching days…I remember going in for an outpatient shoulder surgery the day CP episode aired… I was put under general anesthesia when they did the surgery… as soon as I came around, I was ready to leave the hospital so I can watch the unsubbed episode. Because we were in a rush to leave, we forgot to get my pain medication prescription from the MD… well, i paid dearly that night because I was in excruciating pain and had no medication to take… whew!